Pacific Rim: Sanguine Shadow
by TimeLordSPARTAN
Summary: A second Breach opened in New Zealand. Kaiju destroyed Atlantis, and the only survivor was Holly Short's little sister Emily. Chris Falco took her in, and when the NZDC developed their Jaegers Chris and Holly were selected to pilot the first. From there, things go a bit... odd.
1. Chris and Emily

_To fight monsters, we created monsters of our own._

Chris watched as the massive, matte black Jaeger body was assembled with a feeling of growing satisfaction. The first kiwi Jaeger was nearing completion.

_Two pilots, their brains taking the strain of controlling the Jaeger together and connected through what we called the drift._

Chris stood in the conn pod of the Jaeger, his copilot Emily to his right. This would be their first drift, the first time a drift was performed based on emotions and sensations rather than memories. The tech spoke over the comm:

"Initiating neural handshake in t-minus five.."

_A Jaeger was only as good as its pilots, so Jaeger pilots became overnight celebrities. The Kaiju were reduced to action figures._

"Four..."

"You ready for this, Emily?" Chris asked. She nodded - she knew exactly what was going to happen, just as Chris did.

"Three..."

The most dominant sensation she had felt in her life...

"Two..."

... was pain.

"One..."

Chris and Emily stared forward, preparing themselves as the neural handshake engaged. The world around them faded to a monochrome state before darkening to black.

Color flashed into existence in their minds' eyes in the form of a brilliant gold. Joy, flowing from Chris. The color faded as Emily skimmed over it. She had no experience with it. She sent the next feeling through, a brilliant blue. Sadness, misery. Chris skimmed over that too, before suggesting a burnt orange color - fury.

The exchange of sensations continued for almost a minute before Emily chose the right one. Blood red filled their visions as the feeling of pain filled them. They were stock still for a moment, and then they and the Jaeger all jerked in unison.

"Wow," the tech whispered to the officer behind him, "that neural handshake is off the charts." The pilots and the Jaeger simultaneously slammed their fists into their other hands.

"What should we call it?" Chris asked. Emily immediately replied "Sanguine Shadow." Chris nodded. He liked the name for some reason.

"Okay, Sanguine Shadow, you are clear for your first test run. We'll take this slow, just try walking out of the hangar for now." The pilots and the Jaeger nodded in unison, before realizing they were no longer separate beings. And, just like that, they were Sanguine Shadow.

* * *

_The secondary Breach occurred on the Pacific Rim, just as the primary Breach did. The difference between the two was that the secondary Breach, or Breach Bravo, was located in the Southern Alps, the mountain range which ran like a spine down the length of the South Island of New Zealand. The first Kaiju from Breach Bravo came on February the twelfth, 2024 - the same year the Wall of Life program was implemented. Three Jaegers from the NZDC were deployed, but Sanguine Shadow was the only Jaeger to return. From that day on, all New Zealand Jaegers were manufactured with the same drift mechanism: the experimental Charlie Foxtrot Sensation-Based Drift System, or CFSBDS. This system allowed for unprecedented drift compatibility scores, and more effective Jaegers. I continued my work on my own Jaeger, Sanguine Shadow, constantly adding and upgrading until it was the most effective Jaeger in the NZDC, despite the fact that it was an NZ Mark I Jaeger and the current models were NZ Mark V._

* * *

**April 7, 2024**

**Mt. Cook (Summit)**

Sanguine Shadow faced the large, class IV Kaiju, their body lowered on bent knees and their fists ready to attack. The Kaiju roared at them, revealing the inside of its bioluminescent, blue mouth. The heavily armored head, Chris reasoned, would be a terrible target with its mouth closed, as it was covered in thick bone which would be next to impenetrable. He tagged it with a red X on the HUD in their helmets. He tagged the tail with a red circle with a dot in the centre - their sign for "dangerous weapon, remove if possible" - along with its feet and every one of its horns and teeth. The HUD would give him and Emily realtime information on the tags' locations, speeds and directions._**  
**_

Chris had, over time, become the "thinker" of the team. He marked the weapons and weaknesses of the Kaiju while analyzing its attacks and predicting its next move. His job was to stay one step ahead of the Kaiju while Emily focussed on shooting, slashing, stabbing and pummeling the monstrous beings from beyond our universe into submission. After that, Chris took over to "check for a pulse," as he put it.

The Kaiju, codenamed Brutus, roared again and charged at Shadow. Emily quickly bent them over backwards, deploying the skis as she fired a specially placed set of rockets. As they shot under the massive beast, she deployed a large sword from Shadow's wrist, holding it up to cut the Kaiju open from collarbone to groin. the eviscerated Kaiju collapsed, crushing its own trailing intestines beneath its massive feet.  
"Allow me to check for a pulse," Chris suggested, walking the Kaiju-blue covered Jaeger over to the grey, monstrous beast. Just in case the creature was still alive, he jumped them onto its back from behind, sliced off the tail, and grabbed the massive, diamond-shaped head. He wrenched it back and cut it off in two blows from the sword, hurling it aside and stepping off of the fallen, Kaiju-blue covered monstrosity. Sanguine Shadow walked slowly away from the decapitated corpse, ignoring the multitude of helicopters swarming in to harvest the creature, and began walking in the direction of NZDC HQ just outside Christchurch.  
"No pulse," Emily stated, a feral grin in place. Chris grinned back.  
"No pulse," he agreed.

* * *

**January 3, 2025**

**Hong Kong Shatterdome**

New Zealand had vehemently opposed the Wall of Life program from the moment it was proposed. Many assumed it was due to their first Jaeger's completion - if the wall had been implemented, they would have had to scrap Sanguine Shadow far too early - but New Zealand's position was actually due to... well, its position.

Since the Pacific Rim had been deemed a "Breach danger zone," and the Rim actually cut _through_ New Zealand, the wall was planned to completely bypass the island nation, leaving its six million inhabitants either displaced and homeless or trapped in with the Kaiju. The UN unanimously voted to ignore New Zealand's desperate plea, which led to the country closing its borders, stopping any and all information from leaving the islands and effectively ignoring the rest of the world.

Then they closed Breach Bravo.

Sanguine Shadow, NZDC's last remaining Jaeger, managed to plant a nuclear device inside the mouth of a class IV Kaiju - aptly named "Bigmouth" - while it was still alive and send it plummeting back into the Throat. Chris, when later asked why he had placed it inside the creature in the first news broadcast out of New Zealand since 2020, responded by stating:  
"Well, the plan was to just drop it in, but then Ems decided she'd quite like to see a Kaiju blow up... And, I gotta admit, seeing glowing blue body parts go everywhere before the Breach collapsed _was_ very pretty."

New Zealand had never sent a Jaeger out of the country before, so it came as a colossal surprise to Marshal Stacker Pentecost when he heard a voice with an obvious kiwi accent announce over the comms:  
"This is Jaeger pilots Chris Falco and Emily Short reporting in, do you read us, Shatterdome?"

The entire control room was silent as the message was repeated. Marshal Pentecost shared the silence but a single moment before he began to bark out orders.  
"I want a welcoming party ready outside before those New Zealanders get here! Jones," he pointed at the radio operator, "get on that radio and let them know we receive them loud and clear! Get them to land out front! Beckett, Mori, follow me." Pentecost immediately turned and marched down the yellowed metal hallways at a brisk pace, Raleigh and Mako hurrying to follow. When they arrived outside they were greeted by the sight of a Jaeger unlike any they had ever seen before.

The Jaeger's external plating was painted a black which seemed to absorb all light as if it were a black hole, while the detailing on the Jaeger was colored in the exact same shade of red as human blood. The head resembled the helmets of ancient Spartan warriors, with a red windscreen in the shape of the eye slits. The shoulders were covered in large spikes so as to deter Kaiju from attacking them, as was every other joint on the Jaeger. the Jaeger's knuckles, however, had flat cylindrical protrusions while the forearms were far too bulky compared with the rest of the body. The circular turbine on its chest glowed a bright blue, and was the only source of light on the whole Jaeger.

The helicopters transporting the Jaeger dropped it into the ocean before wheeling about and heading back toward New Zealand. Pentecost managed to glimpse the design of the nearest helicopter as it turned, and was surprised to see, instead of rotors, a set of four nuclear thermal rockets mounted on the top support structure of the craft. The Jaeger, meanwhile, walked right up to the assembled Jaeger pilots and their Marshal before it turned its back on them, its turbine dimming as it powered down. A section of the Jaeger's back opened just below the collar to reveal two pilots in suits colored with the same color scheme as their Jaeger. They somersaulted in unison from the 26-story-tall giant robot and engaged what appeared to be wings from the bulges on the backs of their suits. The wings flapped so fast they appeared to be a blur, slowing the pilots as they reached the ground and allowing them to alight safely. Pulling his helmet off, the first pilot retracted the mechanical wings back into the bulge and offered his hand to Pentecost.  
"Marshal Stacker Pentecost, I presume?" he began. Pentecost shook the hand, not trusting himself to speak. "My name is Christopher Falco. This is my copilot, Emily Short." He indicated the other figure, who was roughly the height of a twelve-to-fourteen-year-old, but appeared to be proportioned as an adult. Emily chose simply to nod, not deigning to remove her helmet. This slightly unsettled the marshal, but Falco chose this moment to elaborate on his copilot's actions.  
"She doesn't talk much to people she doesn't know... or trust," he concluded, a tinge of sadness in his voice. Pentecost nodded.  
"Will you require one room or two?" he asked. Glancing at Short, Falco replied:  
"One room. With two beds."

* * *

**Unknown time**

**Unknown location**

_**Emily ran through the empty streets, searching for her father. Her mother had died long ago, and her sister had never known her, but her father was still in the city... or he should be. But the whole city was empty. A single glance up was all that was needed to see why. The immense dome that protected the city was cracked, and beyond the crack was a beast larger than any being from the myths and legends of any city. The beast struck the dome again, enlarging the crack and letting the water of the ocean outside leak in...**_

"Emily," Chris called, trying to wake his friend from her nightmare, "Emily, wake up!"

**_She screamed and ran from the incoming wall of water, finding the one evac shuttle that had been left behind. She saw other shuttles being struck by another monster, causing bright explosions to pepper the water like fireworks. She dived into the shuttle, sealing it behind her just as the water reached it and hurled it out. She frantically grabbed the controls, swinging the little submarine left and right, up and down, desperately trying to avoid the two monsters. A claw hurtled straight toward the shuttle..._**

Emily's eyes flew open and she sat bolt upright, screaming until her lungs were emptied.  
"Emily! calm down!" Chris exclaimed, leaping up from where he had landed on the floor and catching her as she collapsed. The door burst open to reveal the Russian Jaeger pilots, the Kaidanovsky's, who stared at the New Zealander who was cradling his copilot in his arms and speaking to her quietly in a language which was unfamiliar to them. Sasha Kaidanovsky looked at her husband, and an unseen agreement was reached. In unison, the two Russians slowly backed out of the room and closed the door silently.

Emily's eyes fluttered open.  
"Chris?" she asked, her voice questioning. He smiled down at her before replying in Gnommish.  
"Yes, it's me. DOn't worry, You're safe. It was just a dream." Emily's face became concerned as she replied in the same language.  
"Are you sure? It felt so real..."  
"Where were you?" he asked, his own face darkening in concern.  
"I was in Atlantis. The first and last Kaiju attack on the People." Chris's face fell.  
"And the same day my parents died," he finished. She nodded. They both knew without speaking that that day was also the day she lost contact with her people. They sat there for a minute more, neither speaking nor moving, simply taking comfort from the other's presence. Eventually, Chris stood up and walked back to his own bed.  
"Get some sleep, Ems. We've got a big day tomorrow."  
"Chris?" she asked hesitantly. Chris turned to look at her. He knew that face, knew that voice. "Can I sleep with you tonight?" she asked. He sighed - he could never resist those puppy-dog eyes.  
"Okay, fine," he surrendered. Emily grinned happily and hurried over to Chris's bed. She slipped under the covers and promptly fell asleep with her head buried into his shoulder. Chris looked down at the elf sleeping peacefully next to him, slipping his arm over her to comfort her further before falling asleep himself.


	2. Contact with the People

**January 4, 2025, 3:00 AM**

**Haven City**

Captain Holly Short of the LEP was not very happy. She'd been woken up rather abruptly by a call from Foaly, telling her she needed to get to the Ops center. Groaning, she got up and dressed, hoping this wasn't just Foaly trying to impress her with one of his new gadgets.

"Holly!" the centaur exclaimed, rushing up to her as soon as she entered the room, "we have a situation. I detected a fairy signature on the surface... one which hasn't been detected in years."  
"Foaly, calm down!" Holly tried to calm the nervous centaur, failing miserably as he turned to bring up the signature on the screen.  
"At first, I thought it was _you_, actually, then I realized it was slightly different. It appeared as soon as it left the dead zone caused by the destruction of Atlantis, and along with it is a human signature... and another one which I cannot identify."  
"Why did you think it was me?" Holly asked. The centaur brought up a second signature, one almost identical to the first.  
"This is your signature. The color combination is exactly the same, but the order is off. Yours goes blue, green, orange, red, yellow, white. This one goes blue, green, orange, red, white, yellow." Something in Holly's mind clicked.  
"That combination... It can't be! She was in Atlantis when that monster attacked! There were no survivors!" Foaly nodded.  
"Or so we thought."

* * *

**January 4, 2025, 9:00 AM**

**Hong Kong**

Holly landed outside the city, engaging her shimmer suit to help her hide. Foaly had perfected the shimmer suit's cloaking technology, completely removing the "shimmer" part of it - though that kind of made the name redundant - and Holly was thankful that it hid her from prying eyes. Her destination was a large facility located on an island in the middle of the bay. Foaly had called it the "shatterdome" - and that was where she would find her sister.

* * *

**January 4, 2025, 10:00 AM**

**Hong Kong Shatterdome**

Chris opened his eyes. Something wasn't right. He shifted out from under the covers of the bed, making sure not to wake Emily, and donned his armor. The suit he wore to interface with his Jaeger was the only thing he really felt safe in - possibly because it was designed to withstand anything from knives to nukes. He put on the helmet, activating the optical filters almost as a reflex. He was startled when he saw what could only be a fairy, standing just inside the slightly open door with a gun pointed at him. He raised his hands.  
"Easy, I don't plan on hurting you," he said in Gnommish. The fairy, disarmed by the fact that he could not only see her but could also speak her language fluently, slowly lowered the weapon.  
"Would you mind unshielding so I can take off my helmet?" he asked, continuing to speak in Gnommish. The fairy obliged, and he took off the helmet , placing it on the bedside table. The fairy also took off her helmet, and he was startled to see that her face was almost identical to Emily's. Auburn hair flowed down to her shoulders, framing her heart-shaped face with nut-brown skin, hooked nose and plump, cherubic lips. Her eyes were what really drew his attention, however. One was hazel, with green sclera - exactly like Emily's - while the other was quite clearly a human eye - blue, with white sclera. Chris glanced down at her name tag, and did a double take.

_Holly Short, Captain_

"Short?" he whispered. Holly stared straight into his eyes as he mused.  
"What did you just say?" she asked. he pointed at her name tag.  
"Captain Holly Short," he read out. Her eyes widened.  
"Not only do you speak Gnommish and can see shielded fairies, you can also _read_ Gnommish?" he nodded.  
"A friend taught me." Holly narrowed her eyes.  
"Who?" she asked, her voice filled with malice.  
"Her name is Emily. Emily Short." At the sound of her name, Emily groaned before sitting up.  
"Whaaaat?" she asked groggily before freezing as her eyes met her sister's. "Holly?" she asked, rubbing her eyes. Holly pushed past Chris, dropping her helmet in her rush to pull her sister into a hug.  
"I thought you were _dead!_" she exclaimed, clutching her sister as if she'd never let go. "Why didn't you try to contact me?"  
"She did," Chris interjected, "but nothing got through. We tried internet, cellphone, sat-phone, smoke signals, short-wave, radio, landline, morse code-"  
"Wait, wait, wait, what was that one?" Holly asked, confused.  
"Morse code?"  
"No, the fourth one you said."  
"Smoke signals?"  
"Yeah. Why would _smoke signals_ get through to a race who lives _underground?_"  
"Satellites. I assumed you'd have hacked into them, so we waited for the Google Earth satellite to pass over then burned the message 'Emily Short is here, send a shuttle to pick her up' in Gnommish into a paddock. Almost got arrested for that one, actually." He chuckled. "Did you even check Google Earth?"  
_[Why would we check Google Earth, Mud Man?]_ Foaly asked over Holly's helmet communicator.  
"I don't know, possibly in case a fairy got stuck somewhere without any way to communicate other than burning messages in Gnommish into a field?"  
_[What were the chances of that?]  
_"Actually, surprisingly high. Did you even check the nearest landmass to Atlantis to even _try_ to find lost fairies?"  
_[No. There was a nuclear explosion, we didn't think there'd _be _any survivors, Mud Man.]  
_"And quit calling me Mud Man. My name is Chris."  
_[Sure thing, Mud Man.]_

"How exactly did you find my sister?" Holly asked. Emily sat up, beginning to explain how Atlantis was attacked by two Kaiju. She had reached the last evac shuttle just before the water did, and she narrowly missed being killed by the Kaiju themselves, who destroyed every other shuttle. She thought she was doomed when a strange, delta-wing submarine latched onto the shuttle.

* * *

**June 5, 2020**

**Near Atlantis**

_[Remember your job, Chris,]_ came his father's voice over the comm channel, _[search for survivors, let _us_ take care of the Kaiju.]_ Chris sent back a green light, to busy attempting to avoid the Kaiju to respond further. After he escaped the creature, he 'flew' his submarine - designed to function like an aeroplane, allowing for greater speed and maneuverability underwater - over the ruined, flooded city, scanning for heartbeats. His face fell as the sensors responded with only five heartbeats - his own, the two Kaijus' and his parents. at the same moment, however, his father was back on the comm.  
_[Behemoth is down! just one Kaiju to go!]_ Chris sat bolt upright. The fifth heartbeat was still there - and it wasn't a Kaiju's heartbeat. It was beating very faintly. Whoever it was, they were clearly running out of air. He 'flew' the sub toward the heartbeat, pushing the throttle forward as fast as it would go and angling the wings so that he'd arrive at the same depth as the craft. He slowed as he neared it, switching on his floodlights as the depth made it almost impossible to see.

The hull was cracked, and water was flooding in to the small shuttle. It was never meant to go this deep - the pressure was slowly crushing it. Emily jumped when there was a loud _CLANK_ from the hull. A bright, white glow formed as someone began to melt their way through the side of the shuttle. She grabbed the nearest thing at hand, which happened to be an Omni-tool, and pointed it at the circle of metal which was being formed.

Chris finished cutting through the metal and called out to the lone occupant.  
"Stand back, I'm kicking this in!"  
Emily understood what he was saying, of course - being a fairy, she had the gift of tongues - but she also recognized it as English- a Mud Man language. She backed away hurriedly as the metal circle fell to the deck with a loud _CLANG_. Chris climbed into the shuttle and offered a hand to the frightened girl.  
"Come on, we have to get out of here. This thing is about to implode, and you really don't want to be inside when it does." His kind voice calmed the frightened girl, and she hesitantly took his hand. Immediately, he picked her up and placed her in the airlock before following himself. Engaging the airlock, he detached the sub from the ruined shuttle and watched through the strengthened, transparent acrylic doors as it compressed down to a crumpled ball roughly the size of himself as if it were made of paper. The inner door opened and he led the girl to a seat behind his, asking her for her name at the same time.  
"My name is Chris Falco. What's yours?"  
"Emily Short."

* * *

**January 4, 2025, 10:15 AM**

**Hong Kong Shatterdome**

"So why was there a nuclear explosion?" Holly asked. Chris sighed sadly as Emily patted his arm.  
"His parents were in a nuclear submarine, trying to kill the Kaiju. they got one, but the other... It damaged the submarine to the point where the pressure would crush them before they could kill the Kaiju or escape. In desperation, they told their son to get as far away as possible before they activated their final option," Emily explained.  
"And the final option was..."  
"They blew up their nuclear reactor. It completely obliterated Atlantis, and we are assuming it also took out the relay nearby, since I couldn't get in contact with Haven City. I eventually had to explain the whole concept of fairy society, Haven City, etc. to him after he promised not to tell anyone. He learned Gnommish from me, and he tested the filters on his helmet on me to see if he could see shielded fairies. When I told him about the wings, he became a bit infatuated with building some. We pilot a Jaeger together and-"  
"Jaeger?" Holly asked. Chris immediately perked up, beginning to speak rather quickly.  
"A Jaeger is a humanoid anti-Kaiju combat robot roughly 30 stories tall, controlled by two pilots linked through the 'drift' so as to take the neural load of controlling a machine that is easily fifty times their size using their brains. 'Jaeger' comes from the German word 'Jäger,' which translates to English as-"  
"Hunter, I know. Gift of tongues, remember?" Holly interjected. Chris nodded, slightly put off by Holly's interjection, before continuing.  
"Jaegers and their pilots are often considered a single entity, under the name of the Jaeger. So when Emily and I pilot our Jaeger, Sanguine Shadow, we collectively become known as Sanguine Shadow. The stronger the neural handshake, the better we fight - and the quicker the Kaiju die. Jaegers are also equipped with various weapons. Sanguine Shadow is equipped with two CF-081 LPAs - or Linear Projectile Accelerators - which I designed myself. It also has two retractable Claymore swords, a LASER with a beam temperature of 3000 degrees celsius, a 400mm six-barrel chest-mounted minigun, a cold fusion reactor which can be vented to freeze whatever it is facing, eight CF-172 ITSGs - Impact-Triggered Shockwave Generators - which I also designed, and which have a force output of one point two five million Newtons per knuckle, and a multitude of nuclear thermal rockets to aid in jumping and other movement, including two overcharged rockets mounted on the elbows to help deliver even more force. I've seen a Kaiju's head crumple like tissue paper under a few blows from Shadow." Holly simply nodded before turning to Emily.

***1**"Est-ce qu'il vous force à rester avec lui?" she asked in the first language which popped into her head - French.  
***2**"Non, Il est mon ami. Si quoi que ce soit, je le forçant à rester avec moi," Emily replied, ***3**"mais nous n'avons pas à parler français. Il peut nous comprendre, peu importe la langue que nous utilisons, vous savez. Lui et j'ai réussi à débloquer la magie dans ses veines, et qui inclut le don des langues."  
Holly looked at Chris in surprise, and he nodded.  
***4**"Oui, elle dit la vérité. Je peux vous parler en français, latin, hongrois, chinois, japonais, anglais, espagnol, portugais, et toute autre langue que vous souhaitez." Holly felt her eyes bulge out of her head before Chris jerked bolt upright.  
***5**"Там в Kaiju в Shatterdome! Небольшой, инфильтрация класс. Холли! Хватай пистолет, я получу мой CF-081 LPA(H)!" he shouted in the first language which popped into _his_ head - Russian. Emily immediately grabbed her Neutrino as Chris dragged a large case out from beneath the bed that Emily was still sitting in. He opened the case, revealing what appeared to be a gun in five parts. He threw the strange-looking barrel onto the main body of the gun before screwing it on and attaching the pin, the gel stock cover, the sight/vent and finally slamming the magazine into the bottom, pulling back on the pin to chamber the first projectile and grabbing three spare magazines. Holly stared at him in shock - the method for assembling the gun was clearly so complex that an expert would take five minutes at least to put it together, but Chris's hands were a blur as he threw it together, taking less than half a minute to finish. He looked at her and grinned before speaking in Gnommish:  
"Time to go hunting."

* * *

***1 Est-ce qu'il vous force à rester avec lui?**

Is he forcing you to stay with him?

***2 Non, Il est mon ami. Si quoi que ce soit, je le forçant à rester avec moi.**

No, He's my friend. If anything, I'm forcing him to stay with me.

***3 mais nous n'avons pas à parler français. Il peut nous comprendre, peu importe la langue que nous utilisons, vous savez. Lui et j'ai réussi à débloquer la magie dans ses veines, et qui inclut le don des langues.**

but we don't have to speak French. He can understand us, no matter what language we use, you know. He and I managed to unlock the magic in his veins, and that includes the gift of tongues.

***4 Oui, elle dit la vérité. Je peux vous parler en français, latin, hongrois, chinois, japonais, anglais, espagnol, portugais, et toute autre langue que vous souhaitez.**

Yes, she's telling the truth. I can speak French, Latin, Hungarian, Chinese, Japanese, English, Spanish, Portuguese, and any other language you want.

***5 Там в Kaiju в Shatterdome! Небольшой, инфильтрация класс. Холли! Хватай пистолет, я получу мой CF-081 LPA(H)!**

There's a Kaiju in the Shatterdome! Small, Infiltration class. Holly! Grab your gun, I'll get my CF-081 LPA(H)!


End file.
